She indicated him, discreetly, with her fan. "The Happy Warrior (that's
my private name for him) seems to have something on his mind. Can he
have proposed--at last? I confess I'm curious. But of course _you_ know
all about it, Mr Sinclair. Don't tell _me_!"

"I won't!" said Roy gravely. "You probably know more than I do."

"But I thought you were such _intimate_ friends? How superbly
masculine!"

"Well--he is."

"Oh, he is! He's so firmly planted on his feet that he tacitly invites
one to tilt at him! I confess I've already tried my hand--and failed. So
it soothes my vanity to observe that even the Rose of Sharon isn't
visibly upsetting his balance. Frankly, I'm more than a little intrigued
over that affair. It seems to have reached a certain point and stuck
there. At one time--I thought----"

Her thought remained unuttered. Roy was patently not attending. Miss
Arden and the 'R.E. boy' had just entered the Hall.

"Don't let me keep you," she added sweetly. "It's evident _she's_ the
next!"

Roy collected himself with a jerk. "You're wiser than I am! I've not
asked her yet."

"Then you can save yourself the trouble and go on dancing with me! She's
always booked up ahead----"

Her blue eyes challenged him laughingly; but he caught the undernote of
rivalry. For half a second the scales hung even between courtesy and
inclination; then, from the tail of his eye, he saw Hayes bearing down
upon the other pair. That decided him. He had conceived an unreasoning
dislike of Talbot Hayes.

"I'm awfully sorry," he said politely. "But--I sent word I was coming in
for the dancing; and----"

"Oh, go along then and get your fingers burnt, as you deserve. But never
say _I_ didn't try and save them!"

Roy laughed. "They aren't in any danger, thanks very much!"

Just as he reached Miss Arden, the R.E. boy left her, and Lance,
forsaking his pillar, strolled casually to her side.

She greeted Roy with a faint lift of her brows.

"Was I unspeakable----? I apologise," he said impulsively; and her smile
absolved him.

"You were wiser than you knew. You escaped an infliction. It was
insufferably dull. We all smiled and smiled, till there were 'miles and
miles of smiles'; and we were all bored to extinction! Ask Major
Desmond!"

She acknowledged his presence with a sidelong glance. He returned it
with a quick look that told Roy he had been touched on the raw.

"As I spent most of the time talking to you--and as you've j